About the artist

Tequilajazzz was a Russian alternative rock band led by bassist Eugeniy "Ai-yai-yai" Fedorov based in Saint Petersburg. Band members also included Alexander "Dooser" Voronov on the drums, Constantin Fedorov and Oleg Baranov on the guitars.The group was known for its energetic live performances, characteristic rhythm section, rather minimalistic yet inventive arrangements, and openness to contact with fans. The group's first album Strelyali? was released in 1995 and their discography now includes 6 albums and 12 releases overall.Group members cited The Pixies and Sonic Youth, among others, as their influences.In 2010 Tequilajazzz officially disbanded.

Nike Borzov is a Russian singer and musician.Borzov gained major popularity in 2000 after the Tri Slova and Loshadka hit, which was censored by some Russian radiostations due to the use of the word "cocaine".

Markscheider Kunst is a ska band from St.Petersburg, Russia. It plays afro-rock, soukous, ska and reggae. Russian musical influences can be heard in their music as well. The band was founded in 1992 by geology students from St. Petersburg. The band has done gigs in many countries, as well as been the opener band for Manu Chao in Moscow in 2002.

Billy’s Band is a Russian band from St. Petersburg playing blues, swing, jazz and rock. It was founded in 2001 by Billy Novick and Andrey Reznikov. They have 5 studio, 3 live albums, 3 singles and several compilations. They have participated in major jazz festivals in the United States and Canada. The musicians describe their style as "romantic alcojazz". They are one of the few popular bands in Russia which practice the DIY model: releasing distributing and advertising records and organising concerts and tours itself and not signing a contract with a major record label or producer.

Auktyon is a Russian alternative rock band from Saint Petersburg.The band was founded by Leonid Fyodorov and Oleg Garkusha at the Polytechnic Institute of Leningrad. Though they originally played post-punk and new wave, the group came to be influenced by European and Central Asian folk music, avant-garde jazz, the poetry of Russian futurist Velimir Khlebnikov, and aspects of Russian high culture and literature.Auktyon was particularly popular from 1987 through 1995, but became less active in the late 1990s when Fyodorov began to produce records for Leningrad. The group continues to play together and to release new albums. They toured the United States in 2006 in support of their first US release, the album Pioneer. The group returned to the US in 2008 when they released the album Girls Sing.

Zoopark was one of the founding rock groups which began the Russian rock movement. The group was founded in 1981. It consisted of singer-songwriter Mike Naumenko, guitarist Aleksandr Khrabunov and a varied group of artists. The first album recorded was All Brothers are Sisters with Boris Grebenshchikov in 1978. They recorded on the banks of the Neva River in Leningrad with a "choir" of drunken friends and colleagues playing percussion on metal cans. Naumenko was a rock outcast, concentrating his work on electrified hard-core blues, although his Russian-language poetic songwriting made him a favorite in the hippie underground. His inspirations included Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, T. Rex, B.B. King and Chuck Berry.Naumenko died in 1991, cutting his career short. He remains celebrated, however, as a pioneer of Russian rock music, with his birthday observed in St. Petersburg clubs, along with numerous creative tributes, including a 2009 novel and an "blues opera" that premiered in 2011. A collection of Naumenko's complete written works — including his samizdat translation of Richard Bach's Illusions — is being prepared for publication in 2015.